November 24, 2009

Tutorial: The Jersey Skirt

This skirt is so easy! I made these three in less than an hour yesterday.

For a child's skirt, you can probably use a t-shirt that you have lying around, but for an adult skirt you'll need to get your hands on some jersey yardage.

Before you start: Fabrics usually have more stretch on one side than the other, so be sure that you cut your fabric with the stretchy side goes around you!

1) Measure around your hips (or wherever you wear your skirts). Then cut a waistband that is 3/4 your measurement, and twice as tall as you want your waistband to be. I think mine was 26"x11". (You can also just stretch the fabric around you until it's fairly tight, but not uncomfortable, and use that as your measurement.)

2) Cut a skirt piece that is about twice the measurement of your waistband, and however long you want it to be. Mine is 25" long.

3) Using your machine's longest strait stitch, sew all the way down the top side of the skirt panel, then pull the top thread to gather, until it's the same length as your waistband.

4) Fold the waistband in half width-wise, and lay the skirt panel on top of the open edges. Try to line it up so that the skirt panel hangs over the waistband edges a little bit.

5) Sew the skirt panel onto the waistband, using a zig-zag stitch, then remove the gathering stitches by pulling on the ends of the thread.

6) Cut out two pocket pieces. Mine were 11" on the top, 6" on the bottom, and 7.5" on the sides. Make sure it's big enough to fit your hands in once sewn!

7)Hold your skirt up to yourself and mark where you want your pockets to be, then pin your pocket on to your skirt and sew on the side with the gathered top showing. For a slouchy pocket, you want your pocket to have extra fabric in the middle, so pin it about 6" apart on top, with about a 4" pleated bottom. (see second photo)

8) Sew the open ends of your skirt together, with right sides facing each other, and your done!

I love it as a high-waisted skirt, with the waistband unfolded!

Or folded down, with the ruffled edge showing...

Or if you're not feeling ruffly, just fold the band over them!

side:

For the bubble skirt, do the same as the first skirt(skipping the pockets), but double the length of the skirt, fold in half lengthwise, and sew open edges to the band.

For the grey skirt at the top, I did the same as the first skirt, but I made the skirt length 3/4 longer than I wanted the finished length to be, folded it almost in the middle (so that the bottom layer hangs down further) and sewed the folded edge to the waistband. Then I sewed a zig-zag around the skirt edges, stretching the fabric as I sewed to make it slightly ruffly.

I have quite a headache today, so I apologize if these directions make no sense! Feel free to comment with any questions :o)

ok, 1. This post couldn't be more timely. I just bought some jersey to make a skirt but didn't know how I should go about making the fold-over waistband.and 2. You were just over at my blog commenting on my figure, but check you out! You look great! Not that you need it, clearly, but that high-waisted look is super slimming. I'll be giving that a shot for sure!

very cute - but i was a little confused about the waist - you made the gathered edge of the skirt be on the outside? and then folded the already doubled over waist band over it to cover them? i think that's what it looks like, but i'm not sure...

I have never had good luck at sewing jersey, which is a darn shame, since I have some turquoise & lime green stripped jersey that my daughter would LOVE to have made into a skirt! I may have to at least try it again. ;)

BTW- I've nominated your blog for a Kreativ Blogger award! Visit my blog for instructions on what to do ;)

You are my HERO! I am getting married in 39 days and am realizing that I don't have any money for new things. Your tutorials are simply genius and I can't wait to use them to save money in my future and especially once I start having little ones around. I stumbled upon your blog last night and read it for about 3 hours and another hour this morning. Your little one is precious and so darling in all of those amazing outfits you have made for her! Thank you for also setting an example in being dedicated to the Lord. Like I said before, you are my HERO!

Hi Disney, thank you for such great tutorials. I made the Jersey Skirt and love it. I posted a picture on my blog as well as the link to your site for others to have fun too. I have a list of to do's from your wonderful site. Teresa

Disney, thanks for this helpful tutorial! I am a beginner seamstress at best, but I had no trouble hammering one of these beautiful skirts out in under an hour. I can see myself making many more versions of this skirt in the future.

excellent directions!! Thank you! I am new to sewing and just bought my first machine in February and this skirt was so simple to make and my I love it! Even got a few compliments on it and they tried to guess what store it was from :)

I finally got around to making this today, but I am having such a hard time! My thread keeps breaking, and I have so many gaps. I hope it's just my really old machine that's the problem and not me! I was really hoping to wear this to church tomorrow, but I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it now. It is definitely not wearable in it's current state.

Hey there! So I'm loving this skirt and tried to make one for myself, but must be doing something wrong with the wasitband because it has no give and I can't get it over my hips. Can someone please tell me what I'm doing wrong please? Thanks so much!

Hi Monica! I'm glad you asked this, it looks like I'd forgotten to mention taking out the gathering stitches. (Oops. I've fixed that now.) The straight stitches you used to gather the skirt piece are what makes it not stretch. Now that you've sewn the skirt piece onto the waistband you don't need the gathering stitches, so simply pull those threads out and you should be good to go. :o)

I'm a beginner sewer... I'm trying to sew the panel onto the waist band front he right side but since I'm not that great at sewing a straight line, in curves and then I have parts of the skirt where the waist band is not attached to the skirt. should I be sewing the two together from the wrong side or the right side or does it even matter?